‘Up All Night': See the Crazy Meta Three-Camera Pitch that Made Christina Applegate Quit

Likely any TV viewer keeping abreast of the news, and NBC's recent struggles have heard the 'Up All Night' debacle that saw series star Christina Applegate exiting the series in advance of a posed three-camera reboot. NBC has yet to officially cancel the series, or release stars Will Arnett and Maya Rudolph from their contracts, but new reports suggest that NBC's proposed three-camera twists ran the gamut from meta, to completely insane. Find out what killed 'Up All Night' inside!

'Up All Night' fans well know that the Lorne Michaels-produced NBC series has had its struggles from the very beginning, first bumping up Maya Rudolph's role within the show, before re-tooling the premise for the second season, and ultimately driving series creator Emily Spivey to leave the show behind. The proposed three-camera revamp did the show no favors either, as Christina Applegate opted to leave the series altogether, but a new inside report from TVGuide reveals that the potential changes to the series ran much deeper than the number of cameras.

Bizarrely, one proposed idea saw 'Up All Night' alternating between the one-camera premise that began the series, and a three-camera sitcom from the point of view of baby Amy, while others went far more meta with its actors:

[New show-runner Linda] Wallem and the writing staff began brainstorming ideas for the multi-camera version. One pitch placed a portal between the two worlds — the single-cam and multi-cam versions — that only baby Amy could see. Another idea put Wallem and her real-life partner, [Melissa] Etheridge, in front of the camera, perhaps with the action taking place in their living room.

Ultimately, a script was written in which Applegate, Arnett and Rudolph played actors portraying the characters Reagan, Chris and Ava on a fictional show called Up All Night. Off the show-within-a-show, Arnett's character would live at home with his mother, and Applegate's would be dating. Rudolph's real-life pregnancy was being written into the storyline — and included a "who's the daddy?" twist.

Yikes. Of course, NBC may still decide to utilize Arnett and Rudolph for some continuation of the series, despite Arnett's recent landing of Greg Garcia's CBS pilot and rumors of a potential variety show for Rudolph. After all, the network continues to hemorrhage viewers, and remains in desperate need of a strong lineup for 2013.

Well, what say you? Would the 'Up All Night' reboots have made the show any better? Will you still watch if the series continues on without Christina Applegate? Tell us how you'd save the show in the comments!